Teacher Appreciation Week

I don't like to be too political, so this post is a bit difficult for me to write, but I've been working in education for almost a decade now, and it really is a struggle to be surrounded by the conversations about education in this country and in this state. It's teacher appreciation week, so at least for the week I think teachers feel rather appreciated, but all of the other weeks of the year, that's certainly not the word I would use. I think Taylor Mali in his poem, "What Teachers Make," expresses a lot about how teachers feel:

I spent too much time reading the comments section last year of news stories about teacher pay raises. To me, pay is one way to show value and appreciation of the teachers in this state, and the lack of pay raises sent a very loud and clear message about that to all of us. But, in reading those comments in the comment section, I was rather surprised at what some of the general public felt about teachers, and it turns out that I've heard similar comments from my family members about how teachers are lazy and undeserving of what they make and how they don't work as hard as other professions. On the other side, teachers and supporters of teachers shared stories about long hours worked, calculated the "real" pay of teaching, and made arguments that in no way affected their opponents. What I should have done was stop reading the news, especially the comments section.

Teacher pay isn't the only issue that creates this feeling of lack of appreciation or value. It's also that so much educational reform happens that so few teachers, if any, have a voice in. It's as if the very professionals who work in schools every day are not at all viewed as professionals. It's frustrating to know that what you're being told to do as a teacher isn't working, and yet having very little power to make any changes.

Yet perhaps we can't entirely blame the institution or society or parents or lawmakers or community members. I think as educators, we have to think about how we represent ourselves, how often we appreciate one another (and take the time to say it), and how we share what we're really doing each day (without engaging in argument as the only way to share it). How can we be more appreciative of our peers? How can we start the movement to helping other see our value? How can we productively engage in conversations that affect what we do in our professional lives?

A wise mentor teacher of mine helped me to realize (even though I have trouble putting it to practice sometimes) that we can't worry about what's out of our realm of control. Worry is just a waste of energy. So instead, what we should be doing something about is what we can control. And we can control what we read (not the comments section), what we say to one another, and what attitude we decide to bring to work with us each day. Teaching is challenging, but realize it or not, teachers are incredibly valuable to our country.